Sunday, November 18, 2012

The article in the Detroit Free Press (November 18th,) which allows more school choice and online learning is not popular with some educators. Govenor Rick Snyder is determined to remake education in the state of Michigan from specialized schools to schools without borders and the article below has both its supporters and its critics. Read the article and feel free to comment. Can you imagine paying students to go to school and finish early. Snyder would like to see this happen in the Michigan Public Education Finance Act.

Education funding proposal allows school choice, more online learning

November 18, 2012

Gov. Rick Snyder hopes changing how schools are funded will improve how well they prepare kids for college.

Detroit Free Press Staff Writers

LANSING -- A draft bill prepared for Gov. Rick Snyder would
fundamentally change K-12 education in Michigan, allowing students to
choose school districts, make greater use of online learning and earn
financial incentives of $2,500 per semester for completing high school
early.
The proposed Michigan Public Education Finance Act would
replace the School Aid Act of 1979, the law that governs education
funding, and provide for learning at "any time, any place, any way and
at any pace," said Richard McLellan, the Lansing attorney Snyder tapped
to lead a rewrite of the law on how Michigan pays for education.
Snyder's
advisers said the primary objective for overhauling the education
funding law is to create "career-ready citizens," but educators who have
waited for months to see the draft bill fear the worst: that the bill
would destroy local control of schools, create a voucher system to
benefit for-profit companies and worsen academic achievement.
The
draft bill, expected to be introduced as part of Snyder's budget
presentation in February, was made available to the Free Press on
Friday. It would:
• Remove district ownership of students, who
would be permitted to get all or part of their education from any public
district in the state that accepts them. Districts would retain the
right to decide whether to participate in open enrollment.
• Allow
students to access online learning from across the state, with the cost
paid by the state. Districts that provide online courses would receive
public funding based on performance.
• Provide for per-pupil
funding to follow students to whichever districts they use to learn,
with one student's funding potentially split among multiple districts.
To comply with the Michigan Constitution, public money would not follow
students to private schools.
• Provide a framework for funding based on performance, once the proper assessment and testing mechanisms are in place.
• Give scholarships of $2,500 per semester, to a maximum of $10,000, to students who finish high school early.
•
Encourage year-round schooling by having a 180-day school year spread
over 12 months instead of nine, with a break of no more than two weeks.
A
groundswell of opposition is rising from educators and school officials
who have met with the drafters and seen summaries of the 302-page bill.
The current funding law needs revision to address inadequacies and
inequities in state aid and achievement, but the proposed changes lack
quality controls, some school leaders said.
For instance, allowing
parents to shop around and get different parts of their child's
education from different districts or online providers is troublesome,
said John Austin, president of the State Board of Education.
"This
is a voucher system," he said. "It's absolutely destructive. It has
nothing to do with improving quality. It's loaded with the ideology of
creating a new for-profit system for learning that will dismantle the
schools we have."
Don Wotruba, deputy director for the Michigan
Association of School Boards, said that much of what the bill seeks to
do -- such as having online classes and school choice -- is already
under way.
"But it's monitored," he said. "The answer is not to say, 'Here's the money. Make your own choices.' "
McLellan,
who was an adviser to former Republican Gov. John Engler, said the bill
would not create a voucher system, by which public money could be used
to pay for private education.
He said the bill is designed to help implement what Snyder called for when he delivered a message on education in April 2011.
McLellan
said he expects that the changes could take five years to implement.
They would result in shifts in education money but wouldn't require
additional funds, he said.
The fact that so many students graduate without being ready for college shows that the present system is not working, he said.
Despite
expanded opportunities for online learning, McLellan said he expects
that 95% of students will continue to attend brick-and-mortar schools,
which have social and educational benefits besides learning, such as
athletic and other extracurricular activities.
The changes might result in school districts choosing to specialize in certain areas, such as science, he said.
"Right now, we require every school to do everything," said McLellan.
Vickie
Markavitch, superintendent of Oakland Schools, that county's
intermediate school district, said she is vehemently opposed to the
proposal because it doesn't address education for all students, such as
those who are poor or require special education.
"Transportation
won't be mandated, so there are going to be a lot of kids who are not
going to have a choice," Markavitch said. "This is so un-American."
Florida,
Oregon, Minnesota and Utah are at the forefront of similar changes, but
if this bill is implemented, along with other changes to education
Snyder has championed, Michigan "would have the best framework for the
kind of change we're going to need for the 21st Century to have globally
competitive schools in the information age," McLellan said.
David
Hecker, president of American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, said he
feared the proposal would weaken local control of schools if students
can come from all over and erode the teaching ranks if districts lose
enrollment to one another and online services.
The Oxford
Foundation has funded the research and development of the draft bill.
The foundation focuses on projects that "lessen the burdens of
government," according to its website.
Staton Berry, president of
the Michigan Parent Teacher Association, said she hopes the governor and
his advisers hold meetings "in every district in every city" to explain
the proposed changes.
The draft bill is to be posted online Monday for public comment at http://oxfordfoundationmi.com , after which it will be revised and again presented to Snyder in mid-December, McLellan said.
Snyder
spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said that "the governor is looking forward to
reviewing the report and recommendations about how we can move Michigan
into the 'any time, any place, any way, any pace' model that the new
economy demands." Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com

More Details: More about the Michigan Public Education Finance Act

The Michigan Public Education Finance Act is one of three proposals
that, when considered together, could significantly change education in
Michigan by allowing parents to shop around and use their child’s
per-pupil state aid at more and new kinds of public schools.
A
bill introduced in the state House in September would create nine new
kinds of public schools, such as residential public schools and
corporation-run and municipality-run schools.
Another House bill —
and its companion in the Senate — establish a statute to govern the
statewide Education Achievement Authority
district.

Where to read the proposal

The proposed Michigan Public Education Finance Act would replace the
School Aid Act of 1979, the law that governs public education funding.
The
draft bill is expected to be introduced as part of Gov. Rick Snyder’s
budget presentation in February. Starting Monday, the bill will be
online for public comment at http://oxford foundationmi .com .